8 Elements Of A Great Call to Action
The Anatomy of a Great Call to Action includes at least 8 elements.
A great call to action has a lot more to it than a button saying, “buy now.”
A lot of thought goes into placement, size, color, headlines, and more.
[ctt template=”8″ link=”TbHw7″ via=”no” nofollow=”yes”]To create a great call to action you need to understand your why, your audience’s why, and how the two mesh together.[/ctt]
However, before you get that you have to fully understand what a Call To Action Is.
[ctt template=”8″ link=”8cGte” via=”no” nofollow=”yes”]To fully understand what a Call To Action is check out this post. [/ctt]
Now that we have that let’s look at issues of size, quality, and other important key factors.
- Sizing – It’s important to ensure that you pick the right size for your call to action. You don’t want it too small so that it doesn’t show up to your audience, but you don’t want it to look too big either. You need to ensure that the sizing is right based on the other things on your website.
- Image Quality – It’s imperative that the authenticity of the images you use show through to your audience. This happens by understanding your brand and your voice as a business and choosing the right type of images to represent that to your audience.
- Placement– The other thing you must know about CTAs is where you should place them. Placing them in multiple places is usually the best answer to make sure that you give your audience every opportunity to decide to answer it.
- An Effective Headline – Your call to action should include an effective headline. The headline needs to tell your audience what to do. Do not assume that they know. Make it easy for them to understand. For example, buy now, download now, sign up now, and so forth are all action verbs that won’t confuse your audience. They will easily know what they’re clicking on and what they’re agreeing to do.
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- Color – You also want to make sure that you use the right colors for your site, This will help your call to action to stand out. Look at it and ask yourself whether it stands out or clashes? Does it look professional and command attention? Is it boring?
- Form – You can create your call to action in many forms. For example, should you use a button or another type of image? Should you put a sign-up form underneath each blog post? What about a CTA to connect on social media? These are all forms of CTAs that get good results.
- Text – When you create a CTA, should you put text on the button that gets attention? Should you give an example to your audience on what to write inside the boxes they need to fill out to sign up for something? It depends on your audience, but these actions have been proven to improve conversions.
- Understand Why – When you create your call to action the most important thing to know is why you’re creating it. What do you want your audience to do? Why? When you can understand this you’ll be able to improve your conversion rate tremendously.
Crafting a good call to action takes some thought and consideration to ensure it works.
You’ll need to place and test them to make them better.
Be sure to check back in over the coming weeks as we get even more specific about the Call To Action topic with posts such as:
- What is a Call To Action?
- 8 Elements of A Great Call To Action
- CTA Sales Copy & Content Marketing
- Who Is Your Ideal Client? What Is Their Call To Action?
- Even More Tips To Create A Better Call to Action
Sign up for the Ask Dr. Ho Newsletter and I will be sure to message when the posts go live.
When it comes to creating a great Call To Action what is your biggest obstacle?
Let me know in the comments below. Thank you.
42 thoughts on “8 Elements Of A Great Call to Action”
Hello DR. ELISE COHEN HO
Your blog is very nice I love your blog in this blog you share nice information this info is very useful thanks for share this blog with us
Thank you
Hi Elise,
CTA is the most important part of the puzzle. We have to direct people to where we want them to go, especially if we want to monetize something.
-Donna
It is also a part that causes confusion and is often forgotten. We can change that.
great tips! definitely need to learn more about CTA
I am hopeful that this series is helping you.
Hi Elise,
I have blogged about this and done all this but I haven’t tracked my CTA’s. Any tips how? Thanks,
Janice
Absolutely. I am working on that post. Sign up for my newsletter to be advised of all the posts. I would love that 🙂
Hi Elise,
It’s easy to forget just how much there is involved in creating a good call to action.
Thanks for spelling it out in great details, with more to come.
Joy Healey – Blogging After Dark
There is a lot to remember.
The idea of a funnel (with the appropriate calls to action, starting from something small) leads contacts to eventually buy frombyou, exactly. Love these little reminders. Thank you.
I am happy that you found value.
Thanks Elise, that’s really helpful. I’ve recently launched my new site with plenty of CTA buttons but in all honesty didn’t give them anywhere near as much thought as you’ve described here. That’s what I’m going to do next though, thanks again.
You are so welcome.
This is interesting reading-I do use them but I think I need to do so more often and get a bit smarter!
It just takes some practice.
Hi Elise
A very helpful post. Infact a perfect guide.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you
Sometimes I forget to put a CTA in. I include them in blog posts, but then I forget in my newsletter or when I’m doing a FB live. I’m getting better at remembering 🙂
Overtime you will get even more used to it.
You’d be surprised how how many arguments I’ve had in my marketing career with people over having a strong CTA and not just billowing out content with no purpose. I had to remind my old boss many times, we’re not news reporters!
I love the way that you out it. Clear and concise, for sure.
Elise, these are all great points! The one that stuck with me is creating an effective headline in order to tell the audience what to do. I struggle with writing CTAs, so when put that way, it’s a lot clearer and helps me to view it in a way that makes sense. Thanks for the help!
I love that this brought clarity. That was my goal.
Hi Elisa,
Excellent stuff here!!
Improving conversation rate CTA is very helpful. But yes, we must need it wisely. Not to bring unnecessary fields on the form, not to overuse of CTA on one page, not make people annoyed by placing CTA form at the very first visit etc. we should bear in mind. Thanks a lot for sharing these important strategies about CTA. Have great weekend dear.
You bring up great points.
Calls to action are so important and there’s definitely an art to writing them effectively.
Yes, indeed.
Great advice and perfect timing. I just completed a landing page for my subscriber opt-in and now I’m working on sales pages for my books as well as an upcoming course and I’m pretty much learning as I go but enjoying the process. I used to have an ad agency do all this stuff for me! Thanks 🙂
Learning as you go can really help to solidify lessons.
Great article. There is so much CTA info out there I believe it confuses a lot of folks.
I think so too. I hope this one does not.
I have gotten away from including calls to action in my marketing. I suppose that it is because my business is mostly offline; however, I need to always be marketing. We definitely have lots going on that people could take action on if I only offered–webinars, specials, ebooks, events, etc.
Hey Rachel. Think of it like this. If Best Buy is currently having a sale in store wherein everything is 25% they may prompt you to subscribe to a mailing list for the 25% savings. A store that is strictly Brick and Mortar may have a sign outside that says “CHeck Out xyz.” The call to action is “check out”
Hi Dr.Elise,
Your post is a perfect guide to setting up a call to action that doesn’t fail. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you
Hello Elise,
Good tips over here 🙂
CTA plays n important role if we are into online business and wants people to know us and about our products. Its helps them
to get connected with us and follow us and our latest plans which we are working up to.
Having CTA widgets on our web site is very important, there are many who still do not include the CTA options on their web site,
which leaves a bad reputation from the people who visit their blogs.
Now its just not having the CTA buttons but also to design them well so they do leave a strong impact on visitors.
Thanks for the share.
Shantanu.
I agree with all of your points. I look forward to going deeper into design.
Thank you for sharing your tips! This is super helpful!
I am happy to hear that.
Hi Elise,
How a person can think of success without a call to action. Where an optimized call to action can bring massive results, unplanned activity may make your readers go away from your site.
Thanks for sharing!
Gaurav
Yes, I agree and we want to give them a great reason to stay.